Crazy week!

This week has been a bit crazy and unusual but here is a fun recap of what has been going on......

Last weekend we had a girls shopping day since Ananya was leaving us (we miss you!!!). It was a wonderful day out and about while getting some good deals at the pearl market.

Just missing Katie

Then on Tuesday a local group here was doing a cooking competition to raise money for one of the kiddos here to have surgery. It is a pretty cool group started by some moms wanting to raise money for medical surgeries for orphans. We were able to be one of the teams in the competition.....sadly we did not win but I think our team was pretty awesome and we had a lot of fun during the whole process.

Team PPP

This week as well we had to move the preschool room up into one of the empty nurseries to act as our temporary preschool room over the next couple of weeks while there is construction going on in the preschool area.....more to come on that later. So after sorting what items would be needed over the next couple of weeks and make the switch easier and moving it across and up the building I was able to get the new room set up and ready to go. I think the pictures below show that the kiddos approved of the new space.

let the set up begin!

reading area

kitchen and dress up

circle time

I am looking forward to Monday and being back on an normal schedule and starting our new book and lesson series which will give you a big clue about an upcoming trip that we will be taking the kiddos on...... stay tuned to find out more.

~Stephanie

Clean Teeth and Clean Earth!

This past week was Earth week and we also had a visit for a dental group that came in and talked to the kiddos about brushing their teeth. I think the kids were very excited and now they tell us every morning that they have brushed their teeth. I found it very interesting to learn that here in the culture of China they don't understand the importance of brushing and caring for their teeth and they really don't understand the big deal about baby teeth. Now, I know all of you are probably cringing just like we were but here they look at it is they can pull the tooth and get a fake one so what is the point. So it was a learning experience for everyone and one that will hopefully carry over into their own homes as well. The first two night Ananya and I both went down and helped brush the kiddos teeth but know the nannies are fully on board.

 We also did a series of Earth day activities which included bringing down a blow up "earth" and trying to explain to the kids that this is where we lived and how we need to take care of the earth.

Hopefully, part of this weeks lesson will stick with the kids if not then they at least know the earth is blue and green and they fully believe it is just a circle. We also went out on a walk again around the building and picked and looked out all of the yellow flowers :)

It was a busy but fun week all in all.

~Stephanie

What do you see??

Can you guess what our theme of the last week and a half has been?

  If you guessed the beloved book Brown Bear, Brown Bear you are correct! I have always loved this book but I have read it so many times this week that I actually feel like I am dreaming about Brown Bear. We took on the fun task of creating "What do you see" books for each of the kiddos. This includes a hand or foot print for each animal in the book. At first we were a little nervous about how they would turn out but I am super excited about the end results. The kids had a blast "reading" their books today during story time instead of the actual book.

I would like to thank Pintrest for all the amazing activities that we were able to find and use for Brown Bear. Along, with the fact that it was a huge hit to have the felt board pieces for the story that allowed them to help them take part in telling the story as well.

*Painting their cover pages for their own story books! I LOVED the way they all turned out.

 * My favorite page in their book is probably the children page

~Stephanie